Build Awareness of how communities are being affected by Climate Change, and how to build resiliency.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
Increase corn production capacity and resilience, Increase cacao, coffee and fruit production, Increase vegetable production
Project sustainability
Participants at the workshop discussed the sustainability of the project now that the project is considered closed. Overall, participants felt that the project met their priorities and so this provides a good basis for sustainability of project activities. Given that the agroforestry activity was the predominant feature of the project, participants felt that they were in a position to maintain the fields planted with cocoa, coffee and Inga. Most of the work from now on is focused on field maintenance and this is well within their capacity. The road to the farms still needs a bit more improvement and still needs regular maintenance. This is a costly undertaking so the community will need to develop a plan for road maintenance to ensure that the investment of the project is not lost. The presence of a community-based NGO, Protectors of the Corridor, also helps to ensure that participants from the community will continue to have local support. They are not entirely dependent on the staff of Ya?axche though the NGO itself could use some further strengthening. The local NGO has been given custody of the fire management equipment and will ensure that local farmers have access to those equipment as needed.
Overall, given that farmers have the skills to manage their farms, it is expected that the investment in agroforestry was worthwhile and in the medium term will begin to provide income to the respective households.
Policy Impact
The project does not aim to produce Policy Impact.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
The project is designed to be very participatory whereby all participants will contribute to the project, which creates ownership of the project and its activities. Therefore, they will contribute their labor to the project, specifically in the preparation of the plots and plantation of trees involved in activities 2 and 3, as well as for the preparation of the back-yard gardens and composting facilities in activity 4. Ya?axché Conservation Trust has committed to provide technical assistance and trainings to all project participants.
Replication of project activities
This project for the most part invested in activities that were identified as the priorities and interests of community members through a consultative process. The project was aligned with the capabilities of the community based on their longstanding experience as farmers. Unsurprisingly, the agroforestry aspect of the project achieved much success. The project can be expanded or replicated in other communities taking into consideration the challenges and lessons learned in this project. Unless controlled irrigation and fertilization systems are being utilized, agriculture is very climate dependent and factors can shift or change abruptly and so there is a certain degree of risk involved. Similarly, agroforestry does not bring immediate returns and so emphasis must be placed on it being a medium to long term investment. The gardening aspect of the project faced the most challenges and the least successful. Organic vegetable gardening requires specialized knowledge and skills and unless there is significant emphasis placed on technical assistance and support, this aspect of the project should be not be considered for replication.
Policy Influence
This project did not influence any policy
Gender Focus
Women are an important part of Medina Bank?s food production. Given that some farmers also have other jobs in the surrounding areas at the banana and shrimp farms, their wives take care of the farms while their husbands are away. This means the women will be involved in any agricultural development that happens in the fields (in activities 2 and 3). Activity 4 will specifically target women whereby they will be involved the development of small back yard gardens to grow vegetables These gardens will be specifically managed by women, as they will be set behind/next to the homes of the families that participate in this component of project.
In terms of project management, two female members of ?Protectors of the Corridor? will be directly involved in activity coordination, reporting and basic management duties.
Notable Community Participation
Young people will particularly be engaged in the educational component whereby their knowledge and awareness on climate change effects and adaptation strategies will be increased. In addition, a weather station will be installed in the Medina Bank School yard and primary school students (Standard 5 and 6) will collect temperature and rainfall data in a daily basis. The data will be stored in an excel sheet in the Medina Bank computer lab and results from such data will be presented by students to the community in a yearly basis. Data will be also shared with Hydromet staff which will help enrich weather data and weather models for the southern Belize region.
Project Results
This project was designed to, first of all, increase Medina Bank?s awareness on Climate Change and its effects on present and future generations. It was also intended to provide technical assistance, trainings and materials for Medina Bank farmers to implement resilient farming techniques such as cacao and coffee based agroforestry, corn Inga alley cropping and organic backyard gardening. Agroforestry and corn Inga alley cropping are resilient to climatic variations as they help conserve the soil and create micro-climatic conditions that buffer changes in weather. These techniques also help stabilize land use and prevent further deforestation in surrounding areas, helping keep standing forests intact so that they can continue to provide communities with essential ecosystem services such as clean water, food (such as game meat), erosion control, sediment retention, non-timber forest products, local climate regulation and cloud formation, which are necessary to cope with predicted climate change effects for this area. Organic back yard gardens were planned to bring food production closer to the village, which is relatively far away from the most fertile lands, and will make the village less dependent on outside inputs of vegetables. Finally, fire management trainings would be carried out in order to reduce the amount of forest lost to escape fires due to slash and burn traditional agriculture, which reduce risks in longer dry seasons. 3. 1 Pr o j ect Go al s and O bj e c t i ve s The goal of this project is to improve adaptive capacity, increase food security and promote sustainable development in the Medina Bank community to combat the challenges posed by climate change. The objectives of this Project are: 1. To increase climate change awareness among Medina Bank community members. 2. To increase Medina Bank?s sustainable corn production. 3. To increase Medina Bank?s cacao and fruit production. 4. To increase Medina Bank?s vegetable production. 5. To reduce the amount of escaped fires in Medina Bank.
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3. 2 Pr o j ect A ct i vi t i es Given the effects of climate change on Medina Bank?s food security, the approach of the project is to develop resilient, long term agricultural systems for food production that will help the community increase and stabilize their food security, in order to adapt to changing weather conditions. These systems include cacao and coffee based agroforestry, Inga alley corn cropping and organic backyard gardening. Permaculture approaches like agroforestry and Inga alley cropping provide communities with a soil conservation approach that will allow them to use a same piece of land for several decades, which will decrease deforestation and will provide them with a sustained yield of agricultural products in the short, mid, and long term future. These systems will also help conserve the upper catchments of the Deep River which provides the community with water. In order to address fire management issues and to help decrease climate change effects by fire, the project will also provide traditional slash and burn farmers with trainings in the use of fire in order to avoid highly damaging escaped fires that can destroy hundreds of acres of forest and the ecosystems they support, crops and urban areas. This will help reduce forest loss by fires, and will further ensure the provision of ecosystem services to the community by the upstream forests (water catchment, hunting grounds and extraction of non-timber forests products). Another component of the project will be to bring agricultural production closer to the homes, given the distance that has to be walked to reach the fertile lands. Through backyard gardening, households in Medina Bank will have access to fresh vegetables that they will be able to take care of, eat and sell to other members of the community. Last but not least, a strong educational component will be developed, to teach villagers and students more about what is climate change and what further measures can they take to adapt to it.
